New NASA Astronaut: Anna Menon

Bio
Anna Menon, born in Houston, considers it her hometown. Her parents reside in Houston. She is married to NASA astronaut Anil Menon, and they have two children. Menon enjoys hiking, scuba diving, running, flying, salsa dancing, photography, and spending time with family.

Dedicated to public service, she supported the World Health Organization’s water and sanitation response after the 2015 Nepal earthquake and volunteered with Engineers Without Borders and Engineering World Health.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in mathematics and Spanish in 2008 and a master’s in biomedical engineering from Duke University in 2010.

Background
Menon worked in NASA’s Mission Control at Johnson Space Center supporting medical hardware and software for the International Space Station.

At SpaceX, she was a senior engineer shaping crew operations for Dragon and Starship, serving as mission director and crew communicator for Demo-2 and six other Dragon flights.

In 2024, she flew to space as mission specialist and medical officer on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn, setting a female altitude record, participating in the first commercial spacewalk, and completing about 40 research experiments. At selection, she was a senior engineer at SpaceX.

Interesting Fact
First person ever to join the NASA astronaut corps who has previously flown to orbit; participated in Polaris Dawn mission, setting altitude records and performing the first commercial spacewalk.